Burglers Troll Social Networking Sites, and You May Pay the Price

September 7, 2009 07:47 AM | Comments (3) | Posted in online shopping, social networking, web safety

What: If you use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, you could pay for it with a higher insurance premium. “Leading insurer Legal & General” has given a head’s up to us all about this in a recent article explaining how burglars target those who share information about their travel plans online. Insurance companies might start grilling us about whether or not we’re members of social networking sites, as they decrease our privacy and increase the risk of us getting burglarized.

What They Say:

Plans being considered by Legal & General include questioning customers about whether any of their family members belong to any social networking sites. But yesterday privacy groups accused insurers of using the popularity of social networking sites as an excuse to increase premiums.

What We Say: We’d hate to pay higher insurance rates just because we tweet and update our Facebook statuses. However, this is a gentle reminder to keep tight-lipped about travel plans until they’re all said and done. It’s never a good idea to advertise that you’ll be out of town on the World Wide Web. Remember, it’s easy to customize your privacy settings on all these sites, so there’s really no excuse for putting your safety at risk!